ORIGIN SERIES: GARUDA, THE KING OF BIRDS (PART 1)

 

ORIGIN SERIES: GARUDA, THE KING OF BIRDS (PART 1)

                                                                (The beginning) 

         Those who grow up in a Hindu household are well aware of multiple stories associated with our scriptures. Our grandparents used to tell the stories of Shri Ramachandra, Shri Krishna and other Hindu deities. In simpler terms, we can say that the elders of our household introduce us to our religion through remarkable tales associated with our Holy deities.  In the Hindu traditions, the followers venerate the deities and also give equal respect to the vehicle mount (vahanas) of the Hindu Gods.  According to a certain group of Hindus, the Vahanas of the gods delineates some of the paramount attributes of the Hindu deities. If we talk about Nandi (vehicle mount of Bhagwan Shiva), the person who truly understands the depth of Sanatan Dharma can say the allegorical side of Nandi as the one who represents strength and gallantry. The same goes for the Hansa (swan) of Maa Saraswati. The swan of Maa Saraswati represents grace and beauty. So we can conclude that Hinduism/Sanatan Dharma is way more complex than it seems, and to understand the allegorical side and the core philosophy of Puranic stories requires proper guidance under a spiritual teacher.   In this blog, we will discuss Garuda, the Vahana of Shri Vishnu.

WHY GARUDA IS HIGHLY VENERATED IN THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA?

(Garuda)Pic credit: phana Sitti

 

Garuda is well known among the contemporary Hindus as the divine eagle-like bird playing the role of the Vahana for Shri Vishnu but those who read about Garuda in detail knows about his amazing feats like he freed the Ayodhya princes (Shri Rama and Lakshmana) from the effects of Naagpash (read Ramayana for a detailed knowledge), his remarkable display of heroism and strength during his adventurous journey to procure the amrita from Indralok made him a highly revered figure in South East Asia. He is not only popular among Hindus but he is also famous in Buddhist as well as Jain cultures. 

HOW SANATAN DHARMA DESCRIBES GARUDA?

Garuda carrying Shri Vishnu 
Pic credit © Teahub

 

Venerated texts like the Rig Veda consist of a term spelt as Garutman which means a superlunary Deva with wings. As Per Sanatan Dharma, Garuda can metamorphose into any form and can scurry through anywhere. If he flutters his gigantic wings then the earth, heaven and hell will halt and will not be able to rotate.

George Williams in his book named “Handbook of Hindu Mythology” mentions substantial information regarding Garuda (the king of birds). He mentions in his book that Garuda personifies both the idea and the self which is attached with the Supreme self (Bhagwan Vishnu) and can’t be separated from each other.

 

T.A Gopinath Rao’s book named the “Elements of Hindu iconography” and E. Donaldson’s book “the iconography of Vaishnava tradition” consist of a proper description regarding the appearance of the Bird King, Garuda. According to the aforementioned books, Garuda is depicted in partial human form having a nose, beak and legs that shares similarity with that of an eagle. His wings are of golden yellow colour and his complexion resembles that of an emerald.

Generally, GARUDA is delineated in a form in which he may have two or more hands.

THE POPULAR ORIGIN STORY OF GARUDA:

 

The Origin Story of Garuda is mentioned in Chapters 16-24 of Mahabharata’s Adi Parva. In these chapters, we will get to know about the Naga brothers, the two Sisters (Vinata and Kadru) and most importantly the great battle between the Devas and Garuda. I would like to divide the story into two parts.

THE BEGINNING:

Garuda 
Pic credit: glowonconcept

 

The story begins after the marriage of Kadru and Vinata (Daughters of Raja Daksha) with Sage Kashyapa (one of the famous saptarishis). One day Vinata asked for two sons from sage Kashyapa whereas kadru asked for 1000 Naga sons (Naga is a type of snake that is popular in Hindusim and is also considered as a sacred snake among the Hindus). So kadru gave a thousand eggs and from them hatched a thousand Nagputras (Naga sons). Meanwhile, Vinata gave two eggs that didn’t hatch so early until one-day Vinata cracked open one of the eggs. To her surprise, she saw a baby bird whose upper body parts were well developed but the evolution of the lower body part of the baby bird was still incomplete. Following this discovery, the baby bird cursed her mother (Vinata) that she would be her Sister’s slave for 500 years. The bird further instructed her mother that she shouldn’t crack open the second egg because the bird that will emerge from that egg will liberate her from her slavery.

That baby bird became the Charioteer of the Sun God, Surya and is popularly known as Aruna. We will discuss Aruna in some other blog.

One pleasant day, Vinata and Kadru witnessed a horse named Uchchaihshravas that emerged during the churning of the milk ocean. Following their observation of the seven-headed horse, both the sisters gave different responses regarding the colour of Uchchaihshravas’s tail. According to Vinata, the tail of Uchchaihshravas is white whereas Kadru claimed that the tail is black. This led to a bet between the two sisters. The condition of the bet was that the person who loses will become the servant/slave of the one who wins the bet. Both the sister agreed with the condition of the bet.

Kadru advised her Naga sons to smother the tail of uchchaihshravas so that the appearance of the tail will be black. Unfortunately, Vinata accepted her false defeat once she witnessed the black tail of the seven-headed horse (Uchchaihshravas) and agreed to be the slave of Kadru.

The rest of the story will be written in another blog post which will be published soon.

JAI SHREE RAM.